


Solid Courage

by Thealmostrhetoricalquestion



Category: Shadowhunters (TV)
Genre: Alternate Universe - Human, Attempt at Humor, First Meetings, Flirting, Fluff, M/M, Meet-Cute, Mild Language, Not Canon Compliant, Pre-Relationship, Single Parent Alec Lightwood, Unresolved Sexual Tension, Weddings
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-03-11
Updated: 2019-03-11
Packaged: 2019-11-15 20:25:19
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,389
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/18080309
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Thealmostrhetoricalquestion/pseuds/Thealmostrhetoricalquestion
Summary: In which Alec eats a lot of cake, but not as much as he'd like, gets advice from his overly observant son, and is understandably flustered when confronted with Magnus Bane wearing cuff-links.





	Solid Courage

**Author's Note:**

  * For [Lecrit](https://archiveofourown.org/users/Lecrit/gifts).



> Oh, this is because Lecrit writes wonderful ideas on her Twitter, and I don't have enough bribes to make someone else write this. Though I'm sure someone else will, and it will be delightful, oh my gosh. So if this is terrible, I apologise! It's mostly just fluff and idiocy though. Enjoy!

Liquid courage is overrated, in Alec’s opinion. Liquid courage has never led to anything that couldn’t be categorised, quite fairly, as a catastrophic disaster. What Alec needs is the opposite of liquid courage. What Alec needs is _solid_ courage, if anything. Solid, sweet, frosting-covered courage, peppered with little iced flowers. 

Cake. Alec needs cake. And he's in the perfect place for it, considering this is a wedding. 

He’s hiding in the corner behind a tower of champagne flutes, digging a plastic fork into the last of his cake, when his kid pops up out of the crowd on the dance floor and promptly scares the shit out of him. 

"Don't do that," Alec complains, shaking his head. "How many times have I told you? God, you get it off your Aunt, Izzy's always scaring the hell out of me."

“You’ve been staring at that man for ages,” Cole says, ignoring the way Alec chokes a bit on some vanilla sponge. “He’s going to think you’re a predator.”

“A _what?”_ Alec puts the fork down on the paper plate and frowns at Cole. Cole just shrugs, fiddling uncomfortably with the tie Alec bought him a few weeks ago. It was a battle to get him to wear it at all, so Alec doesn’t say anything about how much it’s loosened over the last few hours. 

“A predator,” Cole says, nodding as he stomps closer to examine the champagne flutes. Alec hopes he’s not looking for dregs of alcohol. He’s pretty sure his mother’s around somewhere, and there’s no doubt that Maryse will have something disapproving to say if she catches her Grandson drinking the remains of someone else’s alcoholic drink. Not that Alec is okay with it, either, but he's seen Cole eat a hotdog off the Mall floor, and he's still not sure it was Cole's, so he knows Cole can survive this. Mom is the biggest concern here. 

“I’m not staring at anyone, and I’m not a predator.” Alec definitely is staring at someone, a very handsome someone that's made it very hard to concentrate on the wedding all day, but he's not about to admit that. He puts the plate down and watches Cole scoop it up immediately. “Do you even know what that word means?”

“Duh.” Cole rolls his eyes, dragging a finger through some leftover frosting. “I’m twelve, I’m not dumb. It means those lions on the nature shows that wants to eat up something—I dunno, like an antelope—and that’s exactly how you were looking at that man. The one over there.”

“There is no man—” Alec begins primly. 

“Oh, did you lose him?” Cole’s voice gets steadily louder, regardless of how much Alec glares. “I’ll help you find him again, hang on. See him?” Cole jabs a finger in the air pointedly, swinging it wildly until it lands on Magnus Bane, leaning artfully against a pillar on the other side of the dance-floor. He's laughing and talking, glass held aloft, glinting with jewellery and looking positively _edible_ in that suit. Alec tries to breathe, to no avail. 

Cole raises his voice again, still pointing, and says, “That’s your antelope!"

Alec hisses a garbled threat and swats Cole’s hand down, but it makes no difference to his deafening tone. A couple of people stare from behind their bottles of beer, and Alec smiles painfully at them until they look away. It’s more of a glower, really, so he's not surprised that they move so hastily.

“Oh, jeez.” Cole’s voice drags his attention away from their audience, and Alec takes in his wrinkled nose and squinted gaze with confusion, and concern. 

“What’s wrong? Are you okay?” He steps out from behind the table of towering glasses, reaching out a hand to brush through Cole’s hair. 

Cole snaps out of it, batting Alec’s hand away immediately. He’s scowling, and Alec immediately regrets letting him grow into a teenager. Cole never used to scowl like that, and when he did, it was mostly cute. With the button nose and freckles, the big eyes. It’s still cute now, in all honesty, especially considering he's wearing a miniature suit and little loafers. But saying so never leads to anything good. 

“Right, fine, not the hair.” Alec holds his hand up, rolling his eyes. “Sorry for being concerned.”

“I’m _fine,_ I was just having a horrible moment of realisation, that’s all,” Cole says, casting another pained glance across the room. “Doesn’t mean you have to touch the hair.”

Alec arches an eyebrow, waiting. Cole sticks his chin out, and then rolls his eyes, muttering an apology. He shovels more cake in his mouth, avoiding eye contact while Alec watches in grossed-out amusement, and then he passes Alec the empty plate. Alec takes it with a grimace. 

“Thanks,” Alec says, well-used to this by now and still not appreciative of it, really. He’s been handed so many disgusting, half-eaten, slobbered-on things in the past twelve years that it doesn’t phase him, but it still makes him want to pile them in Cole’s bed when he's not looking. 

“No prob,” Cole says, with a shrug and a salute. Then he fixes Alec with a solemn look, and Alec considers fleeing. He doesn't like that look. That's Izzy's expression in his son's face. 

“Look, Dad, I have advice for you, okay? It’s about my moment of realisation. Horrible moment of realisation, because I thought it was just your cheesy jokes at the speech catching his attention, but it turns out I'm wrong, which never usually happens. And we have maybe ten more seconds, so I’m gonna keep it brief: don't be the antelope, okay? It’s gonna be tempting, I know you, but don't be the antelope. If you are, we won’t get out of this place before tomorrow morning, and I have practice in the morning.”

"Shit, I forgot about that," Alec says absently, and then he stares at Cole, baffled, as all the other words sink in. “What are you talking about? Did you hit your head?”

“If I did,” says a soft voice from behind him, “I imagine that would explain how I conjured up a vision such as yourself.”

Alec freezes, before jerking round slightly. Cole throws him a thumbs-up, and disappears into the crowd of dancing, flailing people once again. 

“That was a really lame line,” Alec tells Magnus Bane, and promptly wants to brain himself with his plastic fork. If he gets the angle right, he could probably stick it right through his eye and get a trip to the hospital, no pit-stops or faffing required. 

“I thought it was rather good, myself,” Magnus says, slinking closer, bright-eyed and obviously intrigued, for all that Alec can't think _why._ He nods at the empty plate in Alec’s hands. “Enjoy yourself?”

“My son stole most of it,” Alec says, neglecting to mention that it was his third slice. Liquid courage might have be overrated, and the main ingredient in any recipe for disaster, but Alec can’t deny that it gets the job done faster than cake. 

Although maybe the cake was effective after all, considering the reason he needed it is now standing in front of him, wearing a tight, beautiful suit and smiling at him. He was trying to talk to Magnus, get the courage up to walk over and talk to him, and now here Magnus is, two and a half slices later. 

“So, what brings you here?” Alec says after a moment, still holding onto the empty plate. He grimaces internally at his own words, and the tone—for fuck’s sake, he’s never sounded so _jovial_ in his entire life. Jovial is for Grandparents and liquor store owners. It’s not for thirty-something single dad’s suffering with a blight known as a teenager, and an even bigger blight known as a helpless crush-at-first-sight 

Magnus stares at him for a moment, his eyebrows travelling upwards in increments. His smile grows bigger. “Well, being the Best Man usually means you’re required to attend the wedding.”

Alec doesn’t manage to keep his grimace internal this time. Magnus laughs, clearly not minding too much. It’s a sound that Alec wants to plug into the horrible DJ’s turntable and play all night. Granted, Alec would rather listen to the wails of the damned than one more Titanic-Esque Ballad, followed by Britney Spears, but it's still a really great laugh. It puts him at ease. 

“Sorry,” Alec says, the tension leaving his shoulders as he grins reluctantly back at Magnus. “Been a while since I did this.”

“Since you glared at someone across the crowded dance floor and aggressively ate cake?” Magnus steps to the side to let a woman hobble past, but his eyes stay fixed on Alec’s face, his grin sharp and full of intent. “I can’t imagine why you don't do it more often.”

Alec flounders for words for a minute, and then shrugs, putting his plate down on the table behind him. 

“Neither can I, since apparently it works.”

Magnus laughs again, slightly softer this time. He pulls Alec back into the corner he’d found, behind the champagne flutes, and Alec goes willingly, his heart in his throat. It really has been a while since he’s done this—not many people want to date a guy with a kid, especially when that kid is a precocious, protective twelve-year-old, full of sarcasm and hidden angst. Even though it’s been a while, though, he doesn’t think he’s getting the signals mixed up. 

“You know, Helen never mentioned much about Aline’s elusive Best Man,” Magnus confides, leaning in as though he has a secret to share. Alec’s mouth goes dry at the closeness. “I had to coax the details out bit by bit. I must say, Alexander, you’re absolutely worth the mysterious wait.”

Alec usually puts people to rights about his name pretty quickly, but Magnus says his name like it’s heavy wine, or decadent chocolate; something worth _savouring._ So he doesn’t say anything. 

“Aline said you were one of Helen’s closest friends, but she didn't actually say anything else.” Alec ponders this for a moment, and then scowls. “Probably because she wanted to watch me make an idiot out of myself when I met you.”

“So far, so avoided,” Magnus reassures him, grazing a hand lightly over his arm, the tilt of his mouth soft and inviting. 

When Magnus had climbed out of the car near the Ceremony itself, the curves of his thighs clad in expensive, tight black trousers, he had been adjusting his cuff-links with little sharp motions of his wrist. Alec, mid-way through striding out of the entrance to greet the arrivals, had knocked a large ornate flower pot off a pillar and bruised his elbow at the sight. 

Magnus hadn’t seen, but Cole had, and the event will no doubt be brought up again sometime in the foreseeable future, when most convenient. 

“There’s still time,” Alec says, rather than admitting to any of that. “I think you’re being generous, though.”

Magnus’s eyes flare with heat, and he leans in. Alec grows hot, and his eyes flick down to Magnus’s mouth, unable to hide his interest. 

“Oh, darling,” Magnus murmurs, a slow grin lighting up his features. “You have no idea how generous I can be.” 

Alec swallows, tongue darting out to wet his bottom lip. “Yeah?”

Magnus makes an appreciative noise, gaze lingering on Alec’s mouth, and then his eyes dart sideways. He draws back with a little sigh. Alec feels winded; the noise of the room rushes back in, and he remembers abruptly that there are _children_ present. 

“Mmm, and I’d gladly show you, but it seems like it’s time for a father-son dance.”

Alec glances at Cole, squeezing himself through a dancing couple on his way to them, and snorts lightly. 

“I think that’s usually a bride or groom thing, but yeah.” He gives Magnus a small smile. As much as he wants to find a dark, secluded space with Magnus, it's probably too soon for that. And even if he didn't care about that, it's not really appropriate, considering his conspicuously tie-less son is present. “Probably not the best time?”

“Like you said, there’s still time.” Magnus brushes a hand over Alec's arm again as he moves to leave, his sharp grin returning. “If your usual methods of cake-summoning don't work, I can often be found at coffee shops on Friday’s.”

Alec finds himself grinning, slow and pleased, as his heart does something giddy and unfamiliar. “I’m free after one?”

“I’ll bother the happy couple for your number.” Magnus’s smile softens into something warm and happy, and Alec’s stomach flips at the sight. Seems like it’s not just cuff-links that do it for him. Magnus waves at him, and then at Cole when Cole escapes from the mass of dancing people, before disappearing into the tipsy crowd. 

“This DJ sucks,” Cole complains, stomping closer and looking sadly at Alec’s empty hands. “I thought you’d have more cake by now.”

Alec snorts, tugging him closer by the collar and wrapping an arm around him in a half-hug. "Get your own."

“Ew,” Cole says, tucking himself closer. “You’re full of feelings. I really hope they’re not antelope-eating feelings. Or being-eaten feelings. Did you not take my advice at all? I know stuff, you know.”

Alec shakes him gently. “Stop watching nature programmes. And stop talking to your Uncle Jace, he doesn’t know as much as he pretends to.”

Cole scoffs, but doesn’t deny his information source. After a minute, he says, “Your Best Man speech was really cringey, but it seemed to work on that guy. He kept watching you and smiling. That’s why I decided to let him come over here and be gross with you, after my moment of horrible realisation that he _wanted_ to be gross with you.”

Alec feels himself flush happily, and he grins, amused, hugging Cole tighter. “Thanks for giving him permission.” 

He presses a swift kiss to Cole’s head and retreats quickly, as Cole slaps a hand protectively over his hair and whirls around, vengeance in his eyes. Alec laughs as he backs up, but the laugh quickly dies.

Because Cole doesn’t let him get far before he scowls, and says, “You know you had frosting on your face the whole time you were talking to him, don't you?”

**Author's Note:**

> Hope you enjoyed! Thank you! <3


End file.
